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Stars VIP for NL Players Breakdown

I’m a NL player and only an NL player. All the estimation threads that I have seen so far involving hands required for such and such a prize are all based on limit games. Since this does me no good I wanted to see what it takes for NL players to succeed at the VIP program.

I decided to run a little experiment this evening. I spent roughly 2.5 hours this evening on Stars four-tabling the $200 6 max tables. I played 852 hands and earned what would be 301 VPP points (602 thanks to the bonus) for 586 minutes total according to Poker Tracker. Every pot that hits the $20 mark gets you a point in NL. On those numbers the price was right roughly 35% of the hands dealt. Now for the sake of being late I’m going to assume that one VPP point is earned every two minutes. This sample size is basically worthless and will vary, I’m not sure the night crowd on Christmas is the best to use in this example but let’s go with it. Keep in mind, all these hours are estimated at the 6 Max $200 levels. Also, if anyone is still confused only the FPP gets the percentage bonuses and NOT the VPP. They will always increase by increments of one.

1500 VPP is needed to get out of the Bronze Age meaning 3000 minutes of play is required. This results in 50 hours. Not awful to get out of if four-tabling but one is still only left with 1500 FPP. Add another five stress balls to the pile in the closet.

2500 VPP is needed to move up off the Silver level. That is 83.333 hours of poker. Once here it is 133.333 hours of playing for 5250 FPPs.

6000 VPP is the next step. 200 hours of poker to make the Gold card into a Platinum card. The good news is that once you hit the Platinum Level you will have 17250 FPPs, enough for one free $215 ticket into the $500,000 Guarantee on Sunday with matching Pokerstars sweatshirts to go along with it. This is after 333.33 hours of poker.

Now the fun part. If you manage to maintain your Platinum standing for several months (and I do mean several months because if you manage to do it in one month at any level you need to get out more) your FPPs will finally be worth something. If you do not drop down any level at any point you will reach the Supernova standing with 242250 FPPs. To go from 10,000 to 100,000 VPPs one would log 3000 hours at the tables. That’s 3333.33 hours total (funny how that worked out). That’s four-tabling at this level for ten hours a day every day from New Year’s Day until the first weekend of NCAA March Madness.

Don’t forget, those 100,000 raked hands come from (off the 35% guesstimate) 285,715 dealt hands. That’s a LOT of hands to get to this point, and though 242 thousand points sounds good, it still doesn’t get you a surplus of freebies. One 50” Plasma OR a $1500 and $2500 entry to a WSOP prelim OR a $3000 trip and a $1000 shopping spree at Neiman-Marcus. That’s good, because after playing that much I’ll need a long vacation then have to hit the store to spend on the girlfriend that I’ve been neglecting in order to play poker.

To get the big stuff you need to rush to make sure that the year does not end and your Supernova 3.5 times bonus does not run out because you’ll need it.

The WPT PCA package, assuming it will be worth $11000 next year and assuming that this follows the same FPP price line that the WSOP seats follow, will cost 682,000 FPPs. That will be 4188 hours of play at the Supernova level bringing the grand total up to 7521.4 hours. In terms of hands you will need to play roughly 366,000 hands this year and the same amount next year and you will have a free package to the PCA. The Main Event is worse due it being an estimated $12000 value. In brief: 744,000 FPP in price and in one year play 8112 hours, aka 243500 raked hands, aka dealt 696,0000 hands. And the Porsche you ask? Exactly 887923 raked hands in a single year.

I broke down the FPP/$ value on all the items that had a value listed in the description. The WSOP tournaments, the Stars tournaments, and the gift cards range from 60-65 FPPs/$. The best deal off this ratio is the $500 travel gift card. The worst is the $1000 WSOP buy-in at 65 FPP/$, which is weird because the other WSOP seats are all at 62 FPP/$.

Bottom line is forget about the Porsche, the ME, and the EPT. It just won’t happen for NL players and will be at least a few years for any player. I used a LOT of assumptions crunching these numbers, if you would like to argue otherwise please feel free. An assumption that I am also making is that the rate at $100 6 Max would be one VPP point every four minutes, one point every minute at the $400 6 Max.

In conclusion I believe that the biggest chance for poker success (financial gain) is through the free tickets into the Stars Sunday tournaments. Cash small a few times or just one big one for over $10,000 and you can pay for your own seat to the Main Event if you wish (and get to wear whatever you want). Merchandise wise I love the $500 Travel Gift Card figuring it’s the best value and getting out into the world is a very good thing after all that poker. I’m done. Thread is open for discussion. Good night all.